You can do both! Lets talk life balance.

Let’s talk about how you can do both and life balance.

So, let me take you back to a late summers night last year. I’m having a few drinks out my back garden with my housemate and we end up going to a friends house for a few at about 1am. I was enjoying a luke warm can of harp (probably from K Cabs or Dial a Swall at that time of the morning) minding my own business when a fella shouts, “OMG what are you doin’ here?! You’re Catherine Rooney, I follow you on insta and you let on to be all about meditation and mindfulness, but here you are at this party”.

News flash Sir, you can take part in mindfulness practices and still drink alcohol on a Friday night. Now lots of people talk a lot about how alcohol is the worst thing you can drink, it lowers your vibration, has the worst side affects on your mind and body etc. And I am most certainly not saying yes everyone go get steaming every day, but we are all at different stages in our journey of life. Maybe one day I will stop drinking – or maybe I wont who knows.

The idea that some people think you can’t take part in something, practice something, be a part of a community because you are not 100% fully dedicated to it or fully emerged in it is silly. All of the wonderful spiritual/life advisors and teachers we have all started out somewhere. There are Doctors and Nurses that drink, Personal Trainers and Primary School Teachers who drink – I could go on. It doesn’t mean they are pretending to be someone they aren’t when they preach the lovely things that they do.

Finding the balance

The key thing for me is finding a happy medium between the different parts of my life. I always love quoting the famous philosopher Cheryl when talking about balance…

Too much of anything can make you sick, even the good can be a curse

Cheryl Cole

LOL what a forgotten banger from the noughties. Anyway, it’s all about finding that balance. If I know I am going out at the weekend, it’s an absolute must for me that I fit in a week of meditation, nature, yoga, reading – all the wholesome activities. That means when it comes to Sunday, I don’t feel the guilt of ‘oh I should be up making something of myself and being productive’. Meditate when you are hungover too! It honestly helps. My sister swears by a YouTube Hangover Reiki video, it’s fab for sticking on as soon as you wake up or the hangover meditation listed here is good too.

How I find balance

It’s important to have the discipline of things outside of work that will benefit your personal development and mental health, but also activities that you enjoy and can just let loose with. Having a good balance helps me feel fulfilled in life.

Sometimes if I spend too much time on personal development and wholesome/spiritual activities I really crave a good old sleggin’ session i.e. making fun of each other with my mates. Your balance will be completely different to mine. Maybe you are a single parent who struggles to find time to get the self care element in to your life, because all of your focus goes on raising your kids. Which is totally acceptable, but try to find time for a 5 minute meditation in your day or something that will make you feel like you have some ‘me’ time back.

Maybe you are heavily focused on excelling in work and at the gym that you feel you have no time to enjoy yourself. Or maybe you feel guilty at the thought of taking your eye off your disciplined goal. You are so driven and motivated that you skip the fun side of life. It’s great to be so dedicated at chasing after your goals, but your body and mind need time to wind down and relax too. It deserves rest. Sometimes this can mean sitting in silence and focusing on your breath or taking up an old hobby you used to love, or connecting with your inner child and making a fort (mentioned heavily in my blog about turning 30 and feeling immature here lol).

Some closing life balance thoughts:

• Accept that you can’t do everything at the same time, make room for all aspects of your life. Putting unrealistic expectations on yourself can lead to burn out (I’m all for aiming high with your life goals but remember you are human!).

• Get a pen and paper and write down every day for a week where your energy is spent, this will help you look at what needs altering, do you need more rest/fun/discipline? Think of it like an energy budget, how much energy do you want to spend on certain aspects of your life.

• Check in with yourself regularly, notice how you feel, how is your health? Rate your mood against your activities, what drains your energy, how can you rebalance it with what feeds your energy.

There you go, I hope anytime you hear Cheryl Cole Fight for this Love on the radio, it reminds you of this blog and reminds you to check in with your energy and emotions to gain some balance. My balance this week consists of yoga, a meditation class, some litter picking and a candle lit string quartet concert balanced with a rave on Saturday night and no doubt a meal for three for one on Sunday. And I will enjoy every minute!

Lots of love, Cat xx